Pankaj Mishra manifests and marvels at the claim of victimhood by the rich Indians in England, USA and other parts of the world . Back home, we have similar claims to victimhood too. It has been surprising that these rich upper caste Indians claim victimhood of imperialism and colonization of the past even though they might have benefited from it. We can see how these rich Indians have risen even to the position of becoming Prime Minister in England. Yet it appears that this rich upper castes seem to have displaced their dissatisfaction and anger with their own condition on the minorities who are othered and scapegoated as responsible for every ills that seem to affect our society today.
Pankaj Mishra seems to indicate that a fanatic individualism that grew with modernism seems to be the real cause of discontent of the upper castes. We have come to accept that we are primarily individuals, with rights, desires and interests. Margret Thatcher is said to have opined that there is no such thing as a society. Although, Adam Smith had theorized commercial society of self-seeking individuals, what we have to today is much different level of self-interest and may not have been imagined by him. What we are experiencing is what Hannah Arendt called negative solidarity. We are simply herded by capitalism and technology into a common present which seems to have made us claustrophobic and suspicious of shades of otherness. We seem to be fighting a war of all against all. We seem to have embraced a manic nihilistic violence.
Within this context, perhaps, the notion of bland fanatics of Reinhold Niebuhr might assist us to understand our condition . Niebuhr used the term to describe those who regarded contingent achievements of western culture as final form and norm for human existence. These people though all that the west achieved could be achieved by other countries over time. May be we can see some commonality between the bland fanatics and the Indian elites. Like the bland Fanatics, most of the upper caste of our country seem to regard the contingent achievements of culture as the final norm and form of life for all Indians. Hindutva , thus, generalizes and make it normative for all Indians. It imposes this contingent achievement of our culture on all Indians. This closes our future and closes us. This then would mean we have nothing more to achieve All we have to do is embrace and live on the glories of the past.
While living with the illusion of economic freedom of individual (which is corroded every day by promotion of corporate monopolies), we seem to be silent about the undermining of the individual socio-religious freedom by the regime in power. Sadly, our country seems to be moving on destructive path that will take away economic freedom as well as socio-religious freedom and hand it into the hands of a power elite. A mindset of victimhood cannot diagnose the plight of our people and it might be late before we wake up to the disaster that we are calling upon us.
It seems to be that the bland fanatics that were identified by Niebuhr have evolved into neocon democracy promoters and free-market globalizers. We to in India are under a new conservative Hindutva driven Government that has risen through the play of democracy and is open to free-market. But there is a difference. The wheels of the free-market are oiled only let the monopolies of the likes of Adani and Ambani grow. The Bland fanatic in India, appears to have taken to what Zizek calls canned laughter also theorized as interpassivity where a kind of Messianism rules which itself put the entire responsibility of steam rolling what is thought as norm of life and human existence for all Indian on the strong leader in the ruling party.
Unfortunately, this ideology of bland fanatics is pushing us to live in the future that somehow makes us put up with the excesses of the Government as we regard them as required for the quick arrival of the future of our dreams. Hence, we may have to interrogate how we have come to understand time, economy, nation and society. Otherwise, maybe we will descend in the darkness of same imperialism that we liberated ourselves in 1947.
There is no time to intoxicate ourselves on caste/ class privilege. We cannot also go gaga on the idea of India. The very idea of India is undermined from within in our days. We cannot even take pride in the glamour of democracy when the fourth pilar of democracy has been corrupted to the point of becoming the cheer leader of the rulers and intorragator of the opposition . Hence, it is important to challenge the sense of victimhood promoted by the rulers to mobilize, massify and silence the majority community. Often blinkered history is passed on through social media platforms and majority is mindlessly co-opted to enjoy its own destruction.
We seem to be unable to discern despotism hiding as democracy and often have come to like something of a totalitarianism as a benediction. Hence, the upper caste in our country along with other Indians has the imperative to come to terms with the impeding danger. Otherwise, nothing might prevent us from large scale violence against voiceless people. Social Darwinism ignited by Hindu supremism will burn us while small elite will take control of national resources and wealth.
It is therefore, time to understand how a great religious tradition is surrogated by the power elite to achieve its ends. It is therefore, important to embrace plural India. India has history in the plural and the present in the plural. Someone is presenting a future in the singular and we disturb our present in the plural. It is thus, important to look at the future in the plural. All Indians have a future. The envisioning of a plural future will enable us to embrace plural India. Let the bland fanaticism die and open and plural India rise.
